Happy Halloween!

The past few days happened really quickly. So there we were in the Californian desert. We had about four more days and a 4,000 ft climb between us and San Diego. We had planned on visiting David's cousin Chris and his wife Darnell when we got to San Diego. But, luckily we checked our email before starting those last four days. Chris, who is in the military, was leaving in two days. So, we rented a car and drove to San Diego. Although I felt a bit of remorse about not biking the whole way, I didn't mind skipping those mountains. They looked scorching hot. They had no trees, just rocks.

So, we stayed with Chris and Darnell for three nights. Then we started making our way up the coast. Hooray for the ocean! It's so nice to see it again. And to be in a reasonably cool place with lots of breezes.





Now we're in LA. Isn't that crazy? Chris and Darnell actually lived about 30 miles north of San Diego, so it only took us 2 days to get to LA from there. We're staying with Dave's friend Erin while we're here. Erin is a resident adviser at a music school downtown, so we're staying right in the heart of the city. It's amazing. We're trying to figure out what we want to do today.



Here's a picture of the Imperial Sand Dunes. It was very strange. We were riding through desert all day, then suddenly we were in the Sahara. Then after a mile or two, *poof*, back to the desert.


This is a purple prickly pear cactus. I put a different picture of it in my last post, but you can't really tell that it's purple. I'm hoping this one will turn out better.

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you're all dressed up in amazing costumes. Dave and I are going to be fitness unicorns.